It’s so weird that even with this World Cup’s expanded field, China and India still didn’t qualify, despite having the world’s largest populations by far.
Maybe football isn’t historically as important for them, at least within their own countries?
It’s so weird that even with this World Cup’s expanded field, China and India still didn’t qualify, despite having the world’s largest populations by far.
Maybe football isn’t historically as important for them, at least within their own countries?
Historically, Asia is not good in football. East Asia was especially weak (with the exception of the Koreas), and mostly dominated by west Asian countries
This changed in the 90s when Japan transformed the sport, and South Korea got stronger and became global contenders.
Rest of Asia? not so much
@snarfed.org It’s not an easy thing to do. Each “FIFA region” has a qualifying competition. In some, like in Europe, the teams are so good that they are almost a mini-World Cup. For example, Italy, a historically good team didn’t qualify for this one.
had exactly this thought. India has always been bad, but the CCP spent tons of money trying to qualify (and Korea and Japan always qualify), so it’s just no excuse for them.
@snarfed.org three words for you: KABADDI! KABADDI! KABADDI!
The Economist‘s deep dive into the Chinese side of this.